Watch the Video “How Do You Intensify Your Longing For The Ultimate”

Sadhguru looks at how people dull their longing for the ultimate by “snacking”, through shopping, entertainment and various other means. He explains that in a year, it would be helpful to keep aside two weeks just for yourself, when you can explore what it is that this being truly longs for.

Full Transcript:

Questioner: My question stems from the first question that was asked and as you said it is about how intense your longing is, now I mean… my problem is I say a lack of discipline in lot of things including say I am not able to maintain the discipline of doing my Shambhavi regularly and somewhere I think it is because of course if I long for it… long for something sincerely then the discipline would come about. So is longing always a… is it related to a certain situation and time, it comes with a situation or time can be something done to intensify the longing itself?

Sadhguru: How long has it been since you felt hungry?

Questioner: That’s a few hours.

Sadhguru: Really hungry, when did it you feel last? Because most people never allow themselves to feel hungry. They’re eating throughout the day. (Laughs) How long has it been when you felt really, really hungry?

Questioner: Once in a while, yes.

Sadhguru: Tell me how long ago.

Questioner: Really, really hungry I mean …I mean of course hunger happens and then we eat but I don’t know when it was so hungry that I was…

Sadhguru: So it’s been a long time then.

Questioner: Yes, yes.

Sadhguru: Because hunger is not an experience that you forget, it’s intense. So if you fasted for three days, four days then you will use everything, one extra finger movement you won’t make, you will use everything carefully, you will say only what you want to say. You will not say da-da-da-da-da speak like this, you will go carefully because now energies are limited and you know you have to be in a certain way – no training is needed, simply because you’re hungry, you become quiet, you become like this. Similarly, if the longing for something, it’s just like hunger – if you are longing strong enough everything will fall into place by itself. You don’t have to bring discipline into your life, you don’t have to search for a Guru, nothing everything will fall into line by itself, if you long strong enough.

So the problem is there is no longing because there is too much snacking. (Laughs) People who are snacking all the time they don’t feel hunger because you are snacking. Snacking means right now you are trying to satisfy your longing; human longing is to expand boundlessly but you are satisfying your longing with shopping, by watching a cricket match – see lot of people have not come today because there is a cricket match, (Laughs) – by watching a cricket match, by watching a cinema, by talking to somebody, by reading something, by distracting yourself with a million other things. So just spend a few days nothing, simply you paint your room white, okay, comfortable chair but eyes open, no sleeping alert and open. No reading, no thinking, no creating new philosophy, nothing, simply sitting, you will see; initially you may feel like you’re going crazy but after some time you see clearly what is this life longing for becomes hundred percent clear to you. One hundred percent clear to you, there will be no doubt about that.

So this is the reason why we create spaces, an ashram exists so that you come and make use of it for your sadhana, you understand? That you come, you invest a certain amount of time in a year at least a week or two weeks just for this one, for nothing else, just, if you feel this being is worthwhile, if you feel this being deserves at least that much attention, you must give it at least a couple of weeks in a year. Fifty weeks for you… fifty weeks for the world, two weeks for you just for you not for your body, not for your mind, not for entertainment, not for your family, just for you. ‘Oh is it not selfish that I am only thinking about myself?’ (Laughter) This is because you’ve eaten too many tit bits about not being selfish, you understand?

You need to understand this, the best thing, the foremost thing and the most beautiful thing that you can offer to people around you is you are an evolved human being. Yes or no? Not your money, not your wealth, not your rubbish, not your work which is going to make the difference that being with you is a wonderful experience for people around you, your family, the people that you work with, your friends, everybody aspire to be with you because it’s a wonderful experience to be with you. This is the best thing that you can ever do to any human being around you, that’s all they aspire for, isn’t it? But now the problem is you are looking for that wonderful person. ‘Oh, I met this wonderful person!’ Why the hell are you not that wonderful person? Because you never paid any attention to this, you think (Pointing to oneself) something that’s happening around you is more important than what is this. No, no, no the quality of your life is essentially determined by the quality of what this is. How this is – that’s how it will be, wherever we put you, whether we put you in heaven or hell, the experience and the quality of your life is determined by how this is, not how the situation is.

You must spend some time without snacking, then you will know what is hunger; once you are sufficiently hungry, then you know the value of food, isn’t it? Otherwise you will not know the value of food, what it means. Just don’t eat for twenty four hours and then when somebody serves some meal, don’t gobble it immediately, just sit there, wait for two minutes just look at the food, see what it means to you. It’s life sitting out there in the plate, not some rubbish, not some material, not some stuff, it’s life, your life sitting out there in the plate, isn’t it? If you see food like this experientially, the way you handle the food will it change or no? Yes? That’s all. So if you create just one week where you simply, you don’t worry if you come we will fix it how to fix it for you. (Laughs) If we fix it in certain way and then you see wanting to know what this is will become the prime importance in your life.

Once there is longing, everything else will align itself, the heaven and hell will work for you, yes they are all in my employment. (Few Laugh) They will start working for you if the longing is big enough, nobody can stop it. Everything will align with you, that is the nature of the universe. If this one thing, which is the source of creation gets fired up, the creation will get aligned behind you, it will not be against you.

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